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The Wombles and Sooty
The Wombles first emerged from their burrow on Wimbledon Common in 1968. These litter-loving little folk were created by author Elisabeth Beresford who was inspired whilst walking on the common with her young children, Kate and Marcus. One joyful mispronunciation later (Wombledon Common) and we had Great Uncle Bulgaria and his young charges Orinoco, Tomsk, Bungo, and Wellington and his not-so-young associates Madame Cholet and Tobermory. The Wombles scour the common looking for litter to recycle into very useful things and generally cleaning up the mess that we mucky humans always leave behind us. FilmFair's stop-motion series reached our screens in 1973. It featured fabulous puppet designs from Ivor Wood, cockle-warming narration from Bernard Cribbins and a totally-hummable title track from Mike Batt. Orinoco quickly emerged as the star Womble, with his ceaseless appetite for cakes and sandwiches and forty winks. Wombling can be such hard work, you know... Each young Womble chooses his or her name with the aid of Bulgaria's oversize Atlas. Some spend a protracted time carefully sifting through the myriad place names and locations, searching for a particularly fitting name, whilst others merely shut their eyes and point - which is how Bungo got his name. Although the books took our Womble clan abroad, around the country and the world at large and introduced us to many more fellow Wombles, for practical reasons the series remained stationery upon the common and in the Womble burrow - lined with old newspapers and piping and suchlike which had been skillfully (though not always successfully) grafted together by Tobermory. There was at least one additional Womble guest, though, because the outspoken Cairngorm MacWomble The Terrible came a-visiting from his Scottish burrow. In the first book, Magaret Gordon drew the Wombles as if they were unkempt bear-like animals and they didn't wear clothes. She added clothing in later illustrations. Animator and artist Barry Leith took on a number of drawing duties when the tv series launched and he produced fully-fledged fully-furred Wombles. The Wombles were chart-busting recording stars as well as TV celebrities. Composer Mike Batt and friends donned life-size Womble costumes for their television, stage and concert appearances. From 1974 to 1975 they had eight hit singles and spent some sixty weeks in the UK top-forty of 1975, making them the most successful group of the year. Four Wombles albums were also recorded, and subsequently several different compilations of tracks have been reissued. Of course, such merry music making hasn't gone down well with everyone, and Wombles spoofs abound. The most absurd is surely a version of 'Remember You're A Womble' as performed by those Goons, Eccles and Bluebottle and offering us the song in German, as sung by Hitler! A live-action feature film 'The Wandering Wombles' was made in 1978. It starred David Tomlinson, Bonnie Langford and France de la Tour, and featured our furry-friends in full body suits, much like Mike Batt's performing group. Alas the magic was beginning to wear thin by then, and the charm of the series was lost somewhere in translation. But those wandering ones weren't quite ready to hang up their litter bags... In the 1990s, the new owners of FilmFair, CINAR, reintroduced those Wombles to the next generation, with all-new animated episodes. These shows expanded the characters to include Alderney, Stepney and Shansi Womble. The original Womble clan were also given a style-makeover, with some snazzy new outfits lifting them out of the seventies and in to the techno-age. What's more, for the first time, the clan were given individual character voices - a shock for older fans to hear, but no concern to newcomers who took to the show just like their mothers and fathers before them. Until recently, Wimbledon FC had their own Womble mascot Wandle Womble but he was quite rightly dropped after the team moved their stadium to Milton Keynes. The Wombles were ahead of their time in the 1970's, with such a sound environmental message at their heart. And thirty-plus years on, that message still resounds. Indeed, it's probably even more relevant in these eco-guzzling times. Long may they remain, making good use of the things that they find, things that us everyday folks leave behind!... Sooty, the little yellow bear with a penchant for magic tricks has been waving his magic wand and causing merry mischief on our tv screens and in theatres since 1952. He was, however, "discovered" four years previous to that in 1948 when his stage-partner Harry H Corbett found him on Blackpool Pier and purchased him for his children's amusement. At the time, the bear was known as Teddy, and it was Harry and Teddy who first took our tv screens in the BBC variety show "Talent Night". Several performances in, Harry was persuaded to make his bear stand out from the crowd, so he blackened the bear's ears and "Sooty" was born... Don't say it too loudly, but Sooty is actually just a simple glove puppet with a very restricted amount of movement for his performer to play with. But Corbett was a genius. Sooty came to life in his hands. Harry treated him like a real-life little bear, talking and interacting with him as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Sooty doesn't speak, of course. At least, not out loud. Instead, he whispers to his stage-or-screen partner who then imparts his words to the audience. What genius! After "Talent Night" came regular appearances on "Saturday Special". Sooty was a hit, and he subsequently got his own titular show, "The Sooty Show" in 1955. two years later he was joined on stage by Sweep the squeaky dog ''w''ho played the xylophone and sprinkled magic Oofle Dust everywhichway. He became Sooty's bestest pal and buddy and together they made a double-act to rival the very best of British Variety acts. (Oh no, they didn't! - Oh yes, they did!). If Sooty was the mischievous one, Sweep was as mad as a March Hare, with his incessant squeaking and erratic behaviour and his love of sizzling sausages... Sooty and Sweep needed a calming influence, and in 1964 they got it, when the lovable panda bear Soo joined the gang. Butch the dog, Kipper the cat 'Enry robot and Ramsbottom the snake also muscled in on the act. Together, they survived a channel change from ITV to the BBC where they stayed until 1976 when Corbett Snr handed over the reins to Corbett Jnr. Matthew Corbertt injected some welcome vitality in to the act. His father's performances were tailored to a generation weaned on Music Hall and "Watch With Mother" television productions which performed "to" children - perfect back in the 1950s and 1960s - but the times they were a-changing. Matthew allowed himself to become a stage stooge. Sooty and Sweep didn't just joke with him, they humiliated the fellow! It was great fun. And usually very messy, because there was always copius amounts of water and cream flange flying around, and most seemed to end up on our Matthew. Throughout the 80s and into the 90s the Sooty concept was tinkered with and developed constantly, embracing new audiences and changing tastes. The gang were given their own home to have fun with and Sooty's cousin Scampi arrived. They went outside in to the real world regularly, and their anarchic schemes, plans, designs and tomfoolery got bigger, messier, more destructive and consequently, even funnier and regularly bringing down the house - literally. Indeed, there was a time during that particular era when the production was unmissable television for bigger kids too, on a par with the creative highs of "Tiswas" or latterly, "SM:TV Live". In 1996, Sooty dipped a toe into animated water, thanks to our friends at Cosgrove Hall. But the venture was short-lived, and the following year "Sooty Heights" opened its hotel doors. By now, Matthew had decided to retire from the tomfoolery, and Richard Cadell and Liana Bridges stepped into the breach. Although Richard and Liana bravely took all the insults, custard pies and water pistol squirting that were thrown at them, some of the Oofle Dust seemed to have been lost along the way. Sooty's last reincarnation occurred at the turn of the millenium, when he returned in the titular series, "Sooty", which is best remembered for the arrival of Miki, the sly tomcat. Ownership of the little yellow bear has chopped and changed over the last decade. Guiness Mahon bought the Sooty rights in 1996, with Matthew Corbett maintaining ties with the character until his retirement in 1998. Planet Gullane then took control in 2000. But in 2003 HIT Entertainment got their hands on the character as part of their buy-out of the company, and they've since suggested that Sooty doesn't fit into their current roster of stars. But who knows? Sooty remains as popular as ever with the public at large. Why, he's a Great British Institution, up there with Rupert and Basil Brush - both having been reinvented for changing audiences with great aplomb. Basil is currently running amok in "Foxed" and Rupert is about to get a brand-new animated series. There's nothing to suggest that Sooty couldn't do the same...